“I can push the cart myself,” Noa insisted when I wrapped an arm around her to grab the bar at her other side.
“Mmhmm.”
The look she shot me when she thought I wasn’t looking told me that she was into it, even if she didn’t want to admit it.
I’d never been with one of those hyper-independent types. But I figured when you were always used to doing everythingfor yourself, it was cathartic to have someone else not take over, but to see a struggle and help out. And, yes, especially in the case of a badass like Noa, to show protectiveness because they were probably used to everyone assuming they didn’t want it just because they were capable of taking care of themselves.
Besides, walking behind her like that allowed me to lean down anytime I wanted to press a kiss to her temple, to her head, to her neck.
Each time, she fucking melted.
So no matter how confusing I found the desire to do it, I went ahead and kept doing it.
“No,” I said when she held up a pair of men’s shorts in a tan and gray plaid pattern.
“Why not?”
“I can hear Dixon ribbing me all the way from Miami.”
“Dixon’s nothere.”
“Still a no.”
“Fine. But you have to get a pack of these,” she demanded, snatching a bag of wifebeaters off the shelf.
“Seriously?”
“Listen, if we’re going to be stuck together, you’re going to play into one of my kinks.”
“And that kink is a beer-bellied alcoholic standing in his yard scratching his balls?”
A chirp of laughter escaped her at that.
“Clearly, we have had different experiences with these things.”
“What’s your experience?”
“When I was, I dunno, fifteen or sixteen… somewhere around there. Full of hormones. We rented a house in the burbs for the summer. And the neighbor’s son was maybe twenty-one or two. He was obsessed with his car. And he was out there every singleday in one of these tanks. All sweaty and greasy. It was a whole thing. And your arms are better than his, so I want the picture.”
“Alright,” I agreed, tossing the bag into the cart along with a few outfits I’d already thrown in. I moved up next to her, leaned down, and bit her shoulder. “But you have to play into one of my kinks then too.”
Her eyes flashed when I lifted my head.
“What is it?”
“You’ll find out.”
“Does it involve the handcuffs?”
“No. But now that’s gotta go in the rotation too.”
“I can be down with that. With one caveat.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“I get to tie you up too.”
“Babe, any way you want to have me, I’m down. Where are you going?” I asked when she whipped the cart around.
